The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-12-20


thiSGroNd will take me and cut me all 10 pieces
and won finch from it,
The court then said at 5:15 p. M:
PROCEED WITH THE ARGUMENT,
gentlemen. want you to begin speaking to-
night At that time Hon. Dupont Query
began the opening speech Of this momertous
trial. Ills speech is too long FOR insertion here
but it was one of the most thrilling addresses
| that ever Tell on the ears of Georgia Jury.
MI Query took the prisoners
statement today and argued that Il Tom Wool
folk would never finch" though submitted
! to the horrible torture Of being cut to death
| by the crowd, why was it that he was the only
one that tiinched and fed when the murder
! was being committed? He rehearsed how the
manly Itlchard went to the defense of his
/ father, although not near so old in life or in
| the varied experience of Tom. He described
how Miss Pearl, the tender daughter of the
house, and even how little five-yeaT-old Charlie,
! ran into the room where his parents lay welt
| erlng in blood He recalled how the mother,
with the noble heroism of wonlanhood, half
arose and tried toshield her suffering husband.
! The speaker then went on to say that Thomas
| q. Voolfolk was the only one that fnched on
| that terrible occasion. He spoke of how
Tom Voolfolk had fled from the house and
had went to the house of Green Lockett, re-
manning there only few minutes, after which
he returned to the fated house and went
through it all alone. The speaker argued that
Tom Voolfolk, while changing his clothes,
and while scrubbing up the bloody footprints,
must necessarily have discovered the assassin.
During portion of the speech some of the
court officers, who knew the surroundings of
that dark tragedy, and members of the jury
were melted to tears. 1t was like an avalanche
OF Remuneration and was overwhelming in its
condemnation The dim light of dozen gas
jets fell on the half darkened faces of more
than thousand people who filed every inch
OF the sitting space and stood up in the aisles
unuil the building was filled to OVERLOOKING.
Yet over this immense congregation there fell
his sentences, expressive of condemnation in
every word
The speaker then called attention to the
shirt found in the we'll, and made the point
that even the defendant, in his statement,
failed to try to account for that shirt and that
Tom Banks, John Jeff, nor Silas Voolfolk,
neither had access to them. So the argument
went on, link after link until the last garment,
even the socks, was reached. All the micro
scope evidence was gone over, and then the
speaker came to the terrible accusation-the
print of human hand. The speaker said:
Whose hand was that? Col Almighty surely
knows. Was 1t the hand of George caldwell, Tom
Banks or john Jef? 1t was placed there On the
garment and on the thigh of Thomas G. Voolfolk
Was it the hand OF Providence that placed it there?''
The speaker described the position of the
imprint. In handling himself many way he
would never have placed his hand in that posi-
ton. He would, in handling himself in any
manner, have blooded himself in some other
manner before he got that low down. The pris-
oner had on drawers, tied with a cotton string.
In undong that and in bundling his upper and
under Garments there was no stain on any of
those. 'Whose hand was that? 2" exclaimed
the speaker. II think J. know and yet do
not know. Witnesses have testified that there
was a coarse scream like q woman's voice.
The other was a scream such as a Girl would
make-'Oh Lord! Oh Lord!' She cried in
her helnless5aess, aud in her mental agony the
poor girl grabbed that brute by the leg"
At 1915 Captain John Rutherford began
Tho fo}louir, is ~, o1s+,oo+ Of bic Scooo1
..sEnrtIan,o9 Of tba ;,,,,-s The 80, Ind
on11- snoiSnil to mo faty ,,Jor,er4S uho, foIt
o. 3o md io1Sa ta+ IL IIas NV, d,,t,r ~
Jfh q - - 90 10y u"vS W
w i,ll - i,s s 80
u. .. a. ',l1l i1iil ~ ilso ot i"n
- ~ tIi 10 i IT, 80 =, ft
f tio % " 40
soatin IN tbn M ~ y pp KAT cns foS
oso+ -, ~ % Sa; go 800
20 ' ia in' &
~ III 1,'o41 ,d ti 80 80
&c W. ttnu WIZ grev
Wonlfa +lso vl''' rn aor
~ 20 w W 'ilS nv
brolen On" man cn,,3 net have 'er,,etrata5
t.,e Iaaa ode and ,fnai9e a'
' oeea %ig1 ai to+ voo,
foIly or o31F otber sin Ole man conId baye
1one II ~ Stand il, tLe nrssence of nv Cre.
otor and declare that do NOT believe that ono
man copld have committed the terrible trace
dyalonn
Cantain Rutherford uttered these words as q
man Who believed what he said He smoke
them With GREAT emphasis and fire with
hands raised and ewes unified heayenward
His form seemed to exnand and rise several
inches as the declaration was uttered with ali
the macnifcent eloauonce of the great orator,
Cant. Rutherford asked the sheriff to hand him
the AK With which the'butchery was made. He
took The Az Inv the short handle and initiated
how tho blows might have been made. Tho
scene was quite dramatic one and thrilled
The entire assembly, who. in imagination, saw
tba dreadful blows being inflicted heard the
CRUSHING SKULLS AND THE WILD sHRIEKs
and creams of the diving victims: saw the
streams of warm life-blood squirting over the
bed Oil the sides of the walls and up against
the ceiling; heard the rushing of feet about
the house in tic desperate effort to escape the
midnight assassin. On one of the bodies,
testimony said, that there was blows inflicted
both bv tho edge and the eve of the ak,
Counsel Rutherford in handling the AK in
ouired:
"Would n man in that bloody hour, who
was dealing death blows with the back of tho
AK, take time TO stop, turn the ak and strike
with the sharp edge? No. gentlemen of the
iurv,no. no. no
The idea sought to DO conveyed was that
more than one person had hand in that
bloody harvest OF death-but perhaps one of
the most thrilling portions of the address was